9.4LGApr 3, 2025
Adapting World Models with Latent-State Dynamics ResidualsJB Lanier, Kyungmin Kim, Armin Karamzade et al.
Simulation-to-reality reinforcement learning (RL) faces the critical challenge of reconciling discrepancies between simulated and real-world dynamics, which can severely degrade agent performance. A promising approach involves learning corrections to simulator forward dynamics represented as a residual error function, however this operation is impractical with high-dimensional states such as images. To overcome this, we propose ReDRAW, a latent-state autoregressive world model pretrained in simulation and calibrated to target environments through residual corrections of latent-state dynamics rather than of explicit observed states. Using this adapted world model, ReDRAW enables RL agents to be optimized with imagined rollouts under corrected dynamics and then deployed in the real world. In multiple vision-based MuJoCo domains and a physical robot visual lane-following task, ReDRAW effectively models changes to dynamics and avoids overfitting in low data regimes where traditional transfer methods fail.
Odds-Ratio Thompson Sampling to Control for Time-Varying EffectSulgi Kim, Kyungmin Kim
Multi-armed bandit methods have been used for dynamic experiments particularly in online services. Among the methods, thompson sampling is widely used because it is simple but shows desirable performance. Many thompson sampling methods for binary rewards use logistic model that is written in a specific parameterization. In this study, we reparameterize logistic model with odds ratio parameters. This shows that thompson sampling can be used with subset of parameters. Based on this finding, we propose a novel method, "Odds-ratio thompson sampling", which is expected to work robust to time-varying effect. Use of the proposed method in continuous experiment is described with discussing a desirable property of the method. In simulation studies, the novel method works robust to temporal background effect, while the loss of performance was only marginal in case with no such effect. Finally, using dataset from real service, we showed that the novel method would gain greater rewards in practical environment.